The Blood Queen

 

She stands out as the second most famous vampiric historical personage after Vad “the Impaler” Dracula. The real life Elizabeth  Bathory was a noble woman of high birth who was married to count Nadasy. The count was one of the brave nobles who defended Hungary from the brutal depravatities of the Ottoman Turks. After he died she inherited everything and she also became obsessed with holding on to her youth. To ensure her youth she resorted to killing young beautiful girls and women and then bathe in their blood. Eventually the bodies piled up and they caught on to her.

This story is speculative fiction, the authoress, Kimberly Kraft has written two other books on Elizabeth Bathory. She has the knowledge to pull it. What follows is years after she died her son searches out a servant who worked with the family for years to discern if the rumors were true or not. Benedict Deseo is a perfect source of information. Both Elizabeth and herself were infatuated with one another when she first arrived at the estate. What could have boiled up into an intense love affair is put to an abrupt stop but Benedict’s father . The affair would have been a disaster. Their love thwarted Benedict observes the day to day events from the side line. He relates the story of Elizabeth’s first transgression that would have aborted the marriage but there was too much money involved to break the engagement. Then there is the husbands cruel and degrading treatment of her. The husband beat servants mercilessly. Elizabeth might have picked that up from him. Then an older woman is hired as a servant and she teaches Elizabeth the art of besting servants. Benedict was forced into watching. It is her way of getting even for him standing her up when she first got there. She did not know his father beat him half to death for liking her.

The book was face paced and a very enjoyable read, I read it in one day and plan on getting the rest of Kimberly Craft’s books on Elizabeth Bathory.

Getting High with Magick

 

A highly recommended book for those who love cannabis and Magick. Here is a book that combines the two. The first part of the book goes into the history of cannabis and how it has been with us and promoted our development. Most of the research in this part was gleaned from the work of Chris Bennet, who has written extensively about the history of cannabis. Indeed it has. Spread by the Scythians who used it in their funeral rites its use has spread through out the centuries through Greek Roman times to the present. There is also a nice section on recipes. Just a few as it is not a cookbook. The book delves into meditation practices, ceremonial Magick rituals, breathing exercises you name it. Excellent book for beginning Magick users who may or may not have been long time cannabis users. Some of the meditating includes mindfulness  meditation , zen breathing where you focus on just your breath mantra meditation and a few others. The author has also included some ceremonial Magick rituals that have been modified and made somewhat easier to follow from old Zoroastrianism. Included are rituals to charge talimsmans connect with your answers. A nice paradigm in the building there is also some NLP concepts thrown in. If you wish to explore cannabis from a pagan perspective then this book is for you and a great starting point at that.

The Philosopher Within

Everyone knew who Bruce Lee was. No one would doubt that he was a martial artist of the highest level. There are things that many people do not know about Bruce. Most people on the street do not know that he founded the art of Jeet Kune Do . His movies were a vehicle for self expression and getting his point across. He was also a philosopher.

Bruce believed in formless form, being like water and adapting and fitting into every situation. It changed for based on it’s container. Adaptable as they say. One should compare the blade of grass to that of tree. If a strong wind blows then the solid tree will break but the blade of grass will bend and yield. You should. Do the same.

The key points of Bruce’s philosophy were daoism and Zen Buddhism. He believed that everything should be fluid and not fixed. The universe and the world are constantly changing and we should change with it. He never liked the fixed rigid ness of many martial arts. He felt they did nit adapt and change to meet with situation. There are lots of dead people who thought that their art could defend them against whatever. They were wrong. Bruce thought a gun was the best self defense.

Then what are the martial arts for . They could be used for self defense but they were a means of self expression. When one mastered whatever it was they were doing for self expression one could say they are a person of gung fu. Meaning they mastered whatever they were doing and perfected themselves. It could be martial art they were doing or dance or golf.

Sometimes people defended the art based on where it came from. Chinese people might like a style because it was Chinese. Someone may prefer karate because it is Japanese. This sort of cemented a certain racism. Martial arts should be learned based on useful they are not rejected because they are foreign.

Bruce used his movies to make a point. In Way of the Dragon he travels to Rome to help defend a resturaunt from some thugs. One of the workers refuses to learn karate because it is foreign. Bruce said learn it anyway. If it useful why not learn to use it.

No martial art has it all. Jiu Juitsu has ground fighting, the kwin do great kick, American boxing’s good punches. To be a good fighter one needs to be well rounded. The arts give you tools and the object is to be able to use those tools when the time is ready.

Take what is useful from any art and discard the rest. Be practical. The author had a chance to interview Brandon Lee , Bruce’s son, before he too died under strange circumstances. The author also had a letter sent to him from Bruce. You can learn a lot from Bruce Lee even if you are not a Martial Artist,